Image source, Getty Images

As we mentioned earlier, the fighting that has erupted in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country is a direct result of a vicious power struggle within the country's military leadership.

Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of the armed forces and in effect the country's president, and his deputy and leader of the RSF (Rapid Support Forces), Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo - better known as Hemedti - disagree on the future of Sudan and a proposed return to civilian rule.

The shooting began on 15 April following days of tension as members of the RSF were redeployed around the country in a move that the army saw as a threat.

And although the conflict appears to be around the control of key installations, much of it is happening in urban areas and civilians have become the victims.

Read more about their rivalry here.

Image source, .

Sudan, once the largest and one of the most geographically diverse states in Africa, split into two countries in July 2011 after the people of the south voted for independence.

The government of Sudan gave its blessing to an independent South Sudan, where the mainly Christian and Animist people had for decades been struggling against rule by the Arab Muslim north.

However, various outstanding issues - especially the question of shared oil revenuesand border demarcation - have continued to create tensions between the two successor states.

Sudan has long been beset by conflict. Two rounds of north-south civil war cost the lives of 1.5 million people, and a continuing conflict in the western region of Darfur has driven two million people from their homes and killed more than 200,000.

• Read more about Sudan in our country profile here

Mayeni Jones
BBC West Africa Correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

British citizen Amar Osman lives in Edinburgh where he works for the Royal Mail. He was visiting family in Omdurman, 15 miles north of the capital Khartoum, when the crisis started. In a video taken from their back garden heavy gunfire appears to be very close by. Soon the sound of the fighting gets so close he has to run indoors.

Talking to the BBC, Amar says he did what the foreign office recommended but hasn’t heard back. “I filled the location form on the website and I received an email saying they’ve received my form. The auto reply you get after you submit your form and that’s it."

His wife Fatima says they feel abandoned: “It’s very traumatising here and the situation is very bad, it’s getting worse - the clashes, the fighting, and there are dead bodies everywhere.

They say they’ve got some supplies but they’re running out of water.

Foreign secretary James Cleverly said relocated embassy staff would continue to support British nationals in Sudan, but he said the government's ability to extract British nationals would be "severely limited" until the fighting stopped.

In a joint statement, the French foreign and army ministries said "the evacuation operations launched in Khartoum are continuing".

The statement said 388 people had been evacuated so far, including French nationals and citizens of Europe, and also Africa and Asia.

Andrew Harding
BBC Africa Correspondent

Many British civilians still trapped in Khartoum have spoken of their frustration with the limited communication from the Foreign Office.

Some have expressed anger that they were told to stay in hiding, and subsequently missed opportunities to be airlifted to safety by other countries’ military.

One British businessman who managed to hitch a ride on a French military plane from an airport on the outskirts of Khartoum told the BBC that “the French have been absolutely incredible, amazing. I can’t thank them enough for saving my life.”

But the man, who asked not to be named, said he knew of several other British colleagues who remained trapped in the Sudanese capital.

He described their treatment by British officials as “appalling".

Image source, Mohamed Nureldin Abdullah/Reuters

The fighting has brought normal life to a halt - with food and water shortages, as we've been hearing from people in Khartoum over the past week. Our reporter was among many resorting to drinking water from the River Nile.

The World Food Programme (WFP) is warning the ongoing violence in Sudan has the potential to plunge millions more people into hunger.

The organisation has had to suspend its work because of the danger, making it unable to deliver emergency supplies.

Many hospitals in the capital are no longer functioning, and staff in one that is have spoken about their fear of getting shot at any time.

Communications are difficult, because of the lack of electricity for people to charge phones, and disruption to internet services.

Alicia Kearns, Conservative MP and chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said: “The reality is we have to get British nationals out.”

Talking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Kearns said “Every country has an obligation for their diplomats. But we have to get our people out. I really hope that is the current focus because there is no imminent sign of a ceasefire.”

She acknowledges that evacuation is "enormously difficult" because there are thousands of - 3,000, 4,000 plus, she says - British nationals in Sudan.

Kearns says that even if it cannot be done because it’s too dangerous, “we have a moral obligation to tell British nationals as soon as possible because they then need to make their own decisions".

She suggests that lack of proper and regular communication with the British nationals in Sudan suggests that no lessons have been learned since evacuation efforts from Afghanistan.

Image source, Bundeswehr / EPA

As fighting in Sudan continues well into its second week, foreign countries started evacuation efforts for their diplomats and citizens last weekend.

Here is a brief look at what's happened so far:

• The US, Canada and UK announced on Sunday they had flown diplomats out of the country

• French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed that evacuations took place on Sunday and Monday, getting 388 citizens and diplomats out of Sudan
• A handful of Dutch citizens also left Khartoum on the French planes
• Germany's army said the first of three planes had left Sudan, bound for Jordan, with 101 people on board
• Italy and Spain have evacuated citizens - the Spanish mission included citizens from Argentina, Colombia, Ireland, Portugal, Poland, Mexico, Venezuela and Sudan

• Turkey - a key player in Sudan - gathered 640 people in 13 buses to evacuate them by road - 500 others were gathered in an evacuation point. The mission included citizens from Azerbaijan, Japan, China, Mexico and Yemen
• More than 1,000 European Union citizens have been evacuated, the bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Monday, especially thanking France for the operation

• More than 150 people, mostly citizens of Gulf countries, as well as Egypt, Pakistan and Canada have been evacuated by sea to the Saudi Arabian port of Jeddah

• Violence in Sudan has entered its second week as the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group continue to clash.
• The World Health Organization says more than 400 people have died, but the death toll is believed to be much higher
• Most hospitals are closed and water and electricity supplies have been curtailed, prompting fears of a humanitarian crisis
• The killing of aid workers, including three from the World Food Programme, has led the UN agency to pause its operations in Sudan, where a quarter of people rely on food help

• Thousands of foreign citizens and diplomats were evacuated from Sudan over the weekend, with airlift operations continuing today

• Internet access in Sudan is reportedly severely disrupted

As we've been reporting, a number of countries have evacuated diplomatic staff and citizens from Khartoum as the situation in the region becomes more dangerous.

Here are a selection of images from Sudan's capital showing some of those departures.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, EPA

Image source, Reuters

Italian media have reported that a "very complex" operation led to the evacuation of 150 Italian nationals by air to nearby Djibouti.

The group, which included children and elderly people, was mostly made up of diplomatic corps, NGO personnel and entrepreneurs. The last to leave were the Italian ambassador and military personnel.

The minister of foreign affairs Antonio Tajani said on Sunday that Italy was planning to help evacuate Swiss nationals, Vatican diplomats, and several other European citizens, and that the evacuees would be escorted by members of the special forces.

Tajani also said he received assurances from both sides in the conflict that the Italian contingent would be able to leave the country safely.

Almost 40 Italian nationals working with the NGO Emergency are left in Sudan, Italian media has reported.

Internet connection remains largely disrupted across Sudan as the fighting between the army and the paramilitary forces enters a second week, NetBlocks organisation reports.

"Sudan remains largely offline in the midst of an internet blackout, with connectivity at 2% of ordinary levels," the cybersecurity monitor said, external.

It cited military allegations that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces allegedly sabotaged the telecom exchange in the capital Khartoum early on Monday, impacting networks in the country.

Khartoum residents, however, say phone connectivity is still intact.

Image source, Getty Images

Andrew Mitchell, Minister for Development and Africa from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, is urging Britons in Sudan to stay indoors and await further information.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he says this has remained the government's advice throughout this crisis because that’s the safest option:

“We are exploring every single possible way of getting them out. We are focused on getting our citizens out.”

He says the British Embassy is in a very dangerous zone, where the fighting has been taking place, and that other missions have been directly targeted.

He said that it wasn’t possible to gather the British citizens for this yesterday's evacuation of diplomats.

Mitchell also said that the British Embassy is relocating to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.

When asked if he advises British citizens in Sudan not to try to escape the country by their own means, he said: “The only advice is that the British government can only urge people to stay indoors because it’s dangerous outside. However many of the Brits are creative, if at their own risk they determine there is a way for them to leave of course they will take it.”

Around two thousand people have registered with the British diplomatic missions in the country, according to Mitchell.

Sam, a British businessman living in Sudan, told the BBC that news of the UK evacuation at the weekend "gave us hope, but in the absence of any information from the government this was clearly a solution for diplomats only".

He described the situation as a "nightmare for those of us left behind", and said he knew of many people from other countries such as Hungary and South Africa whose embassies were making plans to evacuate nationals.

Another UK citizen in Sudan, William, described a chaotic situation as he opted to leave Khartoum on a bus - organised by his Sudanese employer - to take him and other nationals to Egypt.

Speaking to the BBC's Newshour programme, he said the UK government had given him "nothing" in terms of support, adding: "We had to basically go private, we've had absolutely nothing but nonsense from the government and not even nonsense. We've had nothing.

"The internet's just gone out, so we've been on 3G all day. And we were all running out of data. And so communication was becoming increasingly difficult."

William described waiting to be collected by the bus as a "dicey situation" with "gunfire going off all the time".

Let's give you a quick catch-up on what UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has said - yesterday he called for a ceasefire and end to the violence in Sudan.

He said British diplomats were evacuated from the country after specific threats and violence were made towards them.

Cleverly also urged Britons in the region to "register with us... so we know who is there and where they are".

He has also said that the UK government remains "absolutely committed to supporting" Britons in Sudan but added that without an end to the fighting, ministers were "severely limited in our ability to provide assistance to British nationals".

Image source, Reuters

Generals have been running the north-east African country of Sudan through what is called the Sovereign Council since a coup in October 2021.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is under the command of the council's vice-president, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. The army, meanwhile, is led by Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who is the head of the Sovereign Council.

A proposed move to a civilian-led government has floundered on a timetable to integrate the RSF into the national army.

The RSF wanted to delay the move for 10 years, but the army said it should happen in two.

Clashes erupted in the morning of 15 April between two groups, and have continued despite attempted ceasefires.

You can read more about why the fighting has broken out here.

Jamie Whitehead
Live reporter

Good morning, we've seen further developments in Sudan over the last 24 hours.

UK PM Rishi Sunak has confirmed that British diplomats and their families were evacuated from the country yesterday after fighting between opposing forces has escalated with deadly shooting and shelling in the capital, Khartoum.

France, Germany, Italy and Spain have been evacuating diplomats and other nationals from the country, but some British people still in Sudan feel like they have been abandoned by the government, although Sunak has said that work is going on to ensure the safety of British nationals still there.

However, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly says help for those still there will be “severely limited” until a ceasefire is reached.

I'm joined by colleagues in London and we'll be working closely with our BBC Africa colleagues to bring you the latest developments.

In the meantime, you can read our news story here.